Taking Note

Mayor Do as I Say

By LAWRENCE DOWNES

February 21, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio gave an impassioned presentation about traffic safety on Tuesday. On Thursday, under the immutable law of political comeuppance, he got busted by a TV news crew that caught his two-S.U.V. detail rolling through stop signs, changing lanes without signaling and barreling down the highway over the speed limit.

At this point another law of politics kicked in, wherein the official response generates more heat and derision than the actual offense.

The New York Police Department, whose officers were at the wheel, said its drivers did what they had to do “based on their specialized training in executive protection and professional judgment.”

The mayor’s office said, “We also recognize N.Y.P.D.’s training and protocols, and refer questions related to security and transportation to them.”

Bill de Blasio visited a Department of Transportation crew in Queens on Feb. 20, 2014.

Maybe in Kandahar. This was Queens. A more plainspoken explanation by Mr. de Blasio on behalf of himself and his security detail — we were jerks, and this won’t happen again — would be more credible than invoking the Blackwater defense.

It is my non-professional judgment that these were simply cops rolling through stop signs and speeding in the classic New York, outta-my-way manner — routine lawbreaking sanctioned by their official status, powerful passenger and S.U.V. bulk.

If Mr. de Blasio were still the righteous Public Advocate, he would be calling this mayor out for endangering citizens and treating himself above the law. The rules haven’t changed now that Mr. de Blasio has a bigger job. They remain:

Accountability. Transparency. Leading by example.

Applying basic traffic rules to himself and his drivers may make it even harder for this perennially behind-schedule mayor to show up to places on time. Answering questions forthrightly, without obfuscation, may make it harder for him to stick to his chosen message and control the narrative.

But doing these things will make him a less irritating mayor, and a more believable one.